DA Mark Jones files for leave but says he’ll be at work this week. ‘I’m going to have to go.’
As far as District Attorney Mark Jones knows, he’ll be working as a prosecutor in a Muscogee County courtroom Thursday afternoon.
Jones told the Ledger-Enquirer that he filed a request with the courts for two weeks of emergency leave. As of 6 p.m. Wednesday, he said it has not yet been granted.
Jones had two pieces of business to handle this week, he said. The first was a plea hearing that has been pushed back. The second is a hearing in a murder trial, State v. Haynie.
The embattled attorney who was indicted Tuesday on nine felonies alleging misconduct while in office said he filed the notice in an attempt to “postpone any court work this week.”
Jones himself is set to stand trial Sept. 13 for damage allegedly done to the Civic Center parking lot during the filming of a campaign ad last summer.
“I just don’t want to fool with that given the circumstances,” he said of appearing in court as a prosecutor. “But the hearing is still on. I’m going to have to go.”
Under state law, Jones possibly did not file his leave of absence properly to avoid appearing in the Haynie hearing. The notice wasn’t filed 30 days calendar days prior to the effective date, and the hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 9 since late July.
“I just didn’t want to have to go to court considering (the Sept. 13 Civic Center trial) is next week,” Jones said. “And now the Georgia Attorney General (Chris Carr) is sending me love letters, basically, with this ... indictment. ... So, it’s kind of a stressful situation. I thought maybe that hearing should be continued until next month.”
The defendant, Rebecca Smith Haynie, is a suspect in the 2004 killing of her husband, auto shop owner Kirby Smith. Haynie’s then-lover, Donald Keith Phillips, is a co-defendant in the case. He’s set for a court hearing at the same time as Haynie Thursday afternoon. The case was covered by the reality TV-show “Cold Justice.”
Jones has pressed for the death penalty for Haynie and Phillips. In court orders filed in late July, defense attorneys argued Jones’ pressing death penalty charges is “vindictive” because Jones raised it at a hearing intended to address the defense’s complaints about sharing evidence.
Defense attorneys have sought to bar a death-penalty prosecution by finding it violated the defendants’ rights to due process of law under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The lawyers have also asked Judge Gil McBride to find the defendants’ Sixth Amendment rights to a fair and speedy trial have been violated by repeated delays the prosecution caused. McBride has yet to rule on those requests.
Jones again denied the allegations of misconduct laid out in Tuesday’s indictment. He told the L-E that he has no plans to resign as chief prosecutor for Chattahoochee, Harris, Marion, Muscogee, Talbot and Taylor counties, and alleged the timing of felony misconduct indictment was “suspect.”
“So, basically, you say I tried to bribe my staff in March and you didn’t do anything,” Jones said of Carr. “You wait six months on a bribery charge? ... I don’t like that.
“I feel like this AG guy is coming out of woodwork trying to take the people’s seat,” he added. “I took an oath, and I’m going to protect that seat as long as I can.”
This story was originally published September 8, 2021 at 6:55 PM.